About the Artist

Sarah May (she/hers) is a queer biracial Salvadoreña artist, poet, organizer, facilitator, and bruja She graduated from the University of Utah with her BFA in Photography & Digital Imaging and her MA in Community Leadership with an Emphasis in Art & Culture from Westminster College. Sarah’s writing and visual work weave frequently together across multiple mediums, connecting to ancestry as a healing ritual and ceremony, and exploring identity as cyclical and evolving.

Sarah has long called Pia Appaa, Great Salt Lake, home. As someone who lives in the in-between of multiple worlds and identities, Great Salt Lake is a sacred place where she cultivated her magic into the artist and storyteller she is today and is a huge component of her work as a place-based artist.

Sarah is an artist and co-founder of Making Waves Artist Collaborative, a community of artists, organizers, and vigilkeepers who cultivate lake-facing culture through participatory art and demonstrative love for Great Salt Lake.

ARTIST RESIDENCIES

  • 2022 The Center For Photography At Woodstock Artist In Residence Program, Woodstock, New York, USA

  • 2020-2021 Test Site Artist In Residence Program, Bountiful Davis Art Center, Bountiful, Utah, USA

  • 2020 The Ou Gallery Artist in Residence, Cowichan Valley, Canada

  • 2015 Gullkistan, Residency for Creative People, Laugarvatn, Iceland

COMMUNITY WORK

  • 2021-2022 Plumas Colectiva Latinx Writing & Art Group, Member & Co-Founder, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2019-2022 Color Collective Facilitator and Group Coordinator, YWCA, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2019-2022 Woke Words: Womxn of Colour Reading & Writing Series Facilitator & Group Coordinator, YWCA, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2021-2022 Cyanotype & Circular Weaving Mandala Community Workshops with Craft Lake City, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2021 Program Coordinator Community & Inclusion, Utah Arts Festival, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2017-2021 Information Booth, Receptionist, Office administration, Tech Support & Theatre Volunteer, Sundance Film Festival, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2019 Creative Empowerment Workshop for Latinx Womxn, Consulado de México en Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2018-2019 Creative Expression Workshop for Womxn & Femmes of Colour, YWCA PDX, Portland, Oregon

  • 2018 & 2020 Photographic Mediums & Digital Photography Art Class, Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah

SOLO & CURATORIAL WORK

  • 2021 roots of my soul // raíces de mi alma // eni-k la-una, Bountiful Davis Art Center, Bountiful, Utah

  • 2019 Fragments Bountiful Davis Art Center, Bountiful, Utah

  • 2018 Prayers for Roses, Atelier Shop & Studio, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2016 Glances, Downtown Artist Collective, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2016 Identity Retablos, The Mestizo Institute for Culture and Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2016 Emotional Ties, The Urban Arts Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2015 Portraits in Pieces, Mineral and Matter + The Land of Salt, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2014 The Identity Project, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2013 The Human Experience, Country Club Plaza, Salt Lake City, Utah

USA EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS

  • 2022 The Beat of Our Blood Exhibition, Urban Arts Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2021-2022 The New Beehive Exhibition, Granary Arts, Ephraim, Utah

  • 2021 The New Beehive Exhibition, George S. & Dolores Doré Eccles Gallery at Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2021 The Statewide Annual UT ‘21: Craft, Photography, Video & Digital Exhibition, Finch Lane Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2020 Utah Contemporary Museum of Art 35x35 Extension Exhibition, UMOCA, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2020 & 2016 Artists of Utah’s 35×35 Exhibition, Finch Lane Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2019 Weber State Hispanic Heritage Month Exhibit, Ogden, Utah

  • 2019 Lost Words Violence Art Showcase in Collaboration with Safe Harbor Crisis Center, Bountiful Davis Art Center, Bountiful, Utah

  • 2018 Latin Arte, Consulado de México en Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2018 Historias de Ayer y Hoy, Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah

  • 2017 "Hands up, Don't Shoot!" Exhibition, Mestizo Institute for Culture and Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2016 Dia de los Muertos 2016 Celebration, Utah Cultural Celebration Center, West Valley City, Utah

  • 2016 Identity Retablos, Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2016 Photo Independent Art Fair- Photobook Competition, Raleigh Studios, Hollywood, California

  • 2014 Water is Energy for Souls to Move Through, Bellingham, Washington

  • 2013 University of Utah Annual Student Show, Gittins Gallery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2013 Salt Photo Society, Fracture: An Alternative Process, Gittins Gallery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 2012 Utah Craft and Photography Statewide Show, Rio Grande Depot, Salt Lake City, Utah

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS

  • 2016 In the Midnight Gardens at Mnemosyne Shore, Haus Schwarzenberg, Berlin, Germany

  • 2015 Gullkistan Residency Open House, Laugarvatn, Iceland

  • 2015 In the Midnight Gardens, Bishop Gallery, Dresden, Germany